The Remedy
by Merry Monarch
Summary: She was taken from me and my pain will never heal. No matter how hard I try, I can't let myself heal. AU Red X/Star


Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Teen Titans.

"_Come on, babe. Are you sure?"_

"_I already checked, Xavier. We don't have anymore," she said as she played with the necklace I made for her. I had welded together parts of a rare type of titanium metal while I was at work one day. I made it in the form of an 'X'. She liked it so much that I turned it into a necklace for her. _

_I sighed, a little pout forming as I lounged on the couch. I remained hushed, stroking her smooth locks while she rested her head in my lap. Her focus was engulfed in the movie that played on the television. I sighed childishly once again, toying with her innocence. It was only a matter of time until she gave in. I knew her well, all too well. She was born to be my soul mate. Of course, I knew her. _

_And in 3..2..1.._

"_Okay!" she groaned, defeated. "I'll go buy some." I grinned like the Cheshire cat, knowing my win was inevitable__. She rolled her green eyes playfully at me. "What flavor do you want?" she asked, raising herself from where she had previously been. She crossed her arms and part of her fiery bangs had fallen to her face, all the while giving me her 'you better love me for this' stare._

"_Any flavor you want, beautiful. Just remember the whipped cream for later." My sexy smile spoke louder than my own words. _

"_Ooh, will do," she said sultrily before kissing me goodbye. She grabbed the keys to my truck off the coffee table. _

"_Love you!" I yelled at her across the living room while my eyes gazed at the television screen. As casual as it might have sounded, she knew I meant every word. It also worked better than just a simple 'goodbye', if you ask me. _

"_Love you, too!" she yelled back to me before hearing the door shut to our apartment. _

_I wrinkled my face at the television. __"What the fuck am I watching?"__ It was the Lifetime Movie of the Week she had forced me to watch with her. I quickly made a grab for the remote and started flipping through the channels. _

_I had grown bored and looked to my watch, realizing she had already taken about twenty-five minutes. _

_"Damn. What's taking so long? The store is only five minutes away." I was slightly worried so I reached for the phone and called her cell. Oddly enough, she didn't answer. I sat back down and continued watching the program I had left it on. Five minutes came and went, yet she still hadn't arrived home. I called her phone again. Still no answer. I grew anxious with every passing minute, and now frantic as hell. _

_I peeked outside to see it was getting darker._ "_Fuck.__"__ I paced around, restless. "__Where are you, Kory?" __I was beside myself. I decided the best thing for me to do was just to calm down and take a seat for a moment. But there was something, it wouldn't stop eating at me.  
_

"_Fuck this!" I grabbed my phone and called my friend Gar, who just happened to be working behind the counter of the store she was supposed to be going to. _

"_Speedy Stop," he answered energetically. _

"_Gar, it's Xavier. Is Kory there?"  
_

"_Hold on. Let me check." I heard the sound of the phone being placed down on the counter. Several seconds later, he came back on._

"_She isn't here, dude."_

"_At all?" __I asked, fearing the worst. _

"_Nope. I haven't seen her in here all day,__"__ he informed. "Why?" _

"_She was supposed to go there and get some stuff. She left thirty minutes ago and hasn't come back yet."_

"_Did you try her phone?" _

"_No shit.__" __I didn't intend to sound rough with him, but I was too worried at the moment to care. I ran a hand through my black hair. _"_She doesn't answer it," I informed him, scared out of my mind at my love's mysterious absence. _

"_Well, calm down. She just probably went to another store." _

"_Yeah.__" __I nodded, forcing myself to believe it was a possibility. _"_Maybe. I guess I'll just wait a little longer. Call me if you see her, will you?"_

"_Sure thing, dude."_

"_Thanks." I hung up the phone, trying my best to think of the situation from Gar's viewpoint. _

_Call after call, I kept getting her voice mail. Shaking my head, I knew from the pits of my stomach that something was horribly wrong. An hour had passed and she still wasn't home, nor were any of my phone calls being answered. Something was inexplicably and terrifyingly wrong. _

_Unfortunately, Kory had lent her car to Rachel, her best friend, to use on her business trip, so I had no other means of transportation to search for her. I was going to call Dick, but remembered he was out of town for the weekend. I decided to call another good friend of mine. _

_After a couple of rings, __I shouted through his answering machine. _"_Vic?! Pick up the phone! Hurry up, man!"_

_I was about to hang up until I heard, _"_Yo! What's with the yelling? Shit--" _

"_I need you to take me somewhere."_

_We arrived at the store, and that's when my body froze. She had reached the store, alright, but my truck was left abandoned. Her purse, her phone and my keys, still in the ignition, were all that remained in the truck...she was gone._

_

* * *

_

It had been six months of pure torture since that day. In six months time, my life had gone from one fulfilling and thrilling ball of adventure to practically nonexistent. Despite all the media, the searches, the radio and news reports…everything we tried, we never found out what happened to her. Nothing! Not a fucking clue! It was as if she had fallen off the face of the Earth, never to be seen or heard from again.

And it was all my fault. I sent her to her demise. I despised myself. I loathed myself. It should have been me!

I'd never thought I'd live to see the day when we weren't together. Sometimes, I felt I didn't even want to exist. How could I exist without her? She was my breath of fresh air, my voice of reason, my fantasy in this disenchanted world. My ultimate love.

But then again, I would find myself hoping. If there was even the slightest chance that she was still out there…

Occasionally, I would think back to the day I met her. As luck would have it, she rear-ended me with her car. It was just like her to try and sweet talk her way out of it. Even then I instantly took a liking to her. In a twisted attempt at wooing her, I had to blackmail her into a date, like the sneak that I was. So I offered not to report the accident if she went out on a date with me. Sad I know, but if you knew her, you would've understood. Luckily for me, she agreed. It turned out to be one of the best decisions she ever made, she had always said.

She was an intoxicating whirl of emotions and beauty. In fact, she was the most amazing vision I ever had the pleasure to behold. She had these brilliant emeralds for eyes while her fiery mane trailed down to her waist, and with her warm golden skin--

Oh my Lord! She was my own little piece of heaven, maybe the closest to Heaven I would ever get to. I'd been with a lot of beauties in my time, but next to her they were just nameless faces with mindless souls. No one ever could, nor would measure up to my Kory. We were inseparable. _'Were' _was the operative word here.

Before another memory could journey into my head, the phone on our nightstand rang, echoing through the walls of the lonely bedroom. I rolled over from my side of the bed to answer it.

"Yeah?" I asked lazily.

"It's ten in the morning. Will you get outta bed already?" It was Dick, one of my best buds.

"What do you want, Dick. I'm not in the mood today."

"Will get in the mood because you're coming with me to Jump City."

"For what?"

"Surprise." All that meant was that if he told me, he knew I would have said no. It was easier just to try and lure me under false pretenses. "I'll be picking you up in thirty minutes. So shave, shower and change." Without even waiting for my reply, he hung up.

After taking the last half hour to get ready, I heard an impatient honk indicating he was outside. He always was a punctual fucker. We had driven for a couple of miles before I reached into my pocket and pulled out a pack of Marlboro Reds. I barely had any time to strike a match until Dick intervened.

"Damn it, X! What have I told you about smoking in my car?"

"Not to." I continued to light up the cigarette butt, not caring about the leather upholstery he probably just had conditioned. "Maybe you should be more concerned about driving around with an empty gas tank."

Looking over to the gas gauge, "Ah, damn!" he spat out. "I'm just gonna pull in there." He pointed to a nearby convenient store.

_Great. _I groaned inwardly. I always went out of my way to avoid convenient stores.

He maneuvered the car by the gas pump, giving me a look of anger when my lips still held on to the cigarette. He opened the ash tray located in the console. "Put it out before you burn a hole in my seat."

"Relax, Chuckles." I took one last drag before crushing it inside the tray. "It's out."

"I hate it when you call me that." He exited the car and I watched his back retreat away from me, catching a glimpse of the bold sign of the convenient store. Speedy Stop. It was the name of chain she went to, and I cringed at the sight of it.

As I waited, I listened to the music coming from his radio, being as he left the keys still in the ignition. _Crap stations_, I thought as I flipped through each of the presets. I pulled out another cigarette and used my black Zippo to light it, keeping a watchful eye on the store for any sign of Dick. Even if I would only be able to get a few drags out of it, it would be well worth it. I needed it.

At that exact moment, an old classmate from high school, Johnny, cruised by, honking his horn as he waved his arm out of the window to get my attention. Startled, I jumped, causing my lips to lose grip of my cigarette. I felt the hot ash burn of the cigarette as it landed on me, making me dance out of my seat crazily. It landed back on the seat before rolling all the way back to the crevice of the leather seat.

My lost cigarette wasn't the problem though. I noticed a very faint smudge of melted leather right in the center of the seat. _Oh, boy. Now Dick is going to be pissed._

I went to reach for it before it could do any further damage. One that I was going to be financially responsible for. I let out a deep groan, having to dig into the crack to retrieve it. Only my cigarette wasn't the only thing I felt hidden inside. It seemed like something small and cold was accompanying the cancer stick. After a couple of weak tugs, I extracted what appeared to be a silver necklace. I brought it up to my face and clearly viewed it to be a very familiar necklace, indeed.

My eyes widened more than they ever have their entire lives. The charm was of a metallic 'X', Kory's necklace. I swear I felt my heart skip a beat while my hair stood on end. Everything around me was so still, so wrong.

But then, I narrowed my eyes, things finally dawning in my mind. _What the hell was it doing in Dick's car?_

As I brought it closer to my face for a better observation, what I saw made me completely nauseous. The clasp was broken as if it had been yanked from off of her. There were diminutive trickling of red dots painted about. _Could it be? Her blood?_

What did this all mean, I kept asking myself. The only thing was, I knew exactly what it meant. I've always known he had a thing for her, a fixation maybe. And perhaps Kory knew it, too. She usually strayed when he came over, finding something about him just not...comfortable. He even dated Koma, Kory's older sister, for a short while, but even to Dick, she wasn't Kory, only a nice substitute.

I felt something explode within my body, and it burned with fury. _What in the hell made him think he could do something like this to us? I trusted the bastard! And he takes away the only thing I ever devoted my life to?_ During the group searches and the interviews on her whereabouts, he stood there by me. Like a brother. Not once did I ever read the betrayal plastered on his guilty face. In the end, the fruit of his avarice had gotten the better of him.

My pain, my anguish was all because of him. Rage now consumed my once numb body. It was clear. Dick had made his decision long ago on whose side he was on, as did I. Now I was on the only side that mattered. Mine.

I kissed her necklace gently, hoping I could have felt something, anything. I heard footsteps approaching and looked into the side mirror. I noticed that Dick had begun pumping gas into the car's tank. I swiftly put the necklace into my pocket for safe keeping. I gawked at him through the mirror again, seeing that smug face of his. I could feel the cold metal of her necklace in my pocket.

The next thing I heard was his car door opening as he settled back in behind the wheel. He tossed a small piece of paper into a compartment in the console. "Another stupid number."

I sat immobilized in my seat, trying my best to keep my equanimity, to restrain myself from beating the living shit out of him right there and then. But I couldn't do that. I couldn't touch him. Not until questions were answered. I need to find out what happened. Why her?

Dick started the engine again and exited the gas station. Back on the road, not once did he choose to shut the hell up. I shut my eyes tightly, drowning out his voice. Did he not realize I knew everything? How could he go on living as if nothing had happened? Even as he slowly watched me die inside. I was losing it, I knew I was.

I spoke up before he traveled any further. "Hey, Dick," I could feel my voice almost about to crack. "I left something back at my place. We need to go back."

"But that's almost ten minutes away, X. Can't it--"

"No," I said bitterly. "It's important. Trust me."

Maybe he sensed the severity in my voice because he soon nodded. "Okay. Sure."

Again, he continued to talk but I just glared out the window in front of me, abhorred with the fact that I had to sit and maintain a decent conversation with him. It was one of the hardest things I ever had to do. If anything, I needed to refrain myself from slamming his head against the steering wheel until he was nothing but an unrecognizable bloody mush. A disturbing grin came over me, enticed by the idea. _How good would that feel?_

"...I'm not even sure why she did," he laughed at his own joke.

I felt my body shake from all the hatred that penetrated through my veins at his laugh. How carefree it was, as if everything was one with the world. But I knew better. He was mocking me. I stayed this way throughout our drive home. My eyes came alive when I felt the car stop. We were back at the apartment.

"Hey, do you want me to--"

"No," I bit back. "I mean, no need to. I won't be long." Dick shrugged his shoulders as I got out of his car.

"What the hell did you do!" I heard him shout before slamming the car door shut. He must have noticed the small blemish on his flawless leather.

I unlocked my front door and closed it just behind me. I leaned on it, trying to contemplate what to do next. At that moment, I had finally realized a couple of things. Truly realized them. Kory was gone, she wasn't coming back to me. And my pain was never going to heal. Impulsively, I slammed my fist against the wooden door, causing a faint dent to appear. I continued to punch at it, grunting at the pain I was inflicted with. Not the physical pain, that was nothing. It was the emotional one, the one that kept tearing away at me. I couldn't handle it.

Again, I felt the cold chain in my pocket, almost as if she was trying to remind me of something. To not let her go in vain.

_Oh, I wouldn't. _

I traveled upstairs to our closet and reached for a small black case off the top shelf. Kory always hated that I kept it around, but in a city like this, one could never be too safe. Pretty ironic sentiment now, if you ask me. Upon opening it, I handled the lusterless metal, thinking of the things she had to have endured, how frightened she had to have been, or the times she had to have called out for me. I shook my head, it was safer not to think.

I placed the steel metal between my stomach and denim jeans, concealing it. Its coldness against the warmth of my alabaster skin stunned me for a brief moment, awakening me. I ran back to Dick's car and sat back in the passenger seat.

"Could you have taken any longer?" he asked, steering us back onto the road.

"Shut up and let's go," I ordered.

I caught myself staring at him as he drove to our destination, and for the first time since her disappearance, my lips slowly curled upwards, full of content.

You're probably thinking what I'm doing is crazy. That I'm just angry, not thinking straight. This won't solve anything. Well, I can't help but scoff at your sentiments. Thank God I'm not you.

* * *

I'll leave the ending up to your wild imaginations. This was just a one-shot I had been thinking about doing. I know a lot of Rob+Star fans are probably thinking, "what the freak" but as much of a huge fan as I am of theirs, I also love Red-X+Star. And I guess I was feeling in an angsty mood that day. That, and for once I just felt like reading a story where Robin wasn't such a good guy. This is an AU (alternate universe) after all, so out of character-ness all around. Cheers!

Anyways, sorry if it offends anyone, but if it makes you feel any better, just imagine the roles of Xavier and Dick switched. Thanks for reading and take care.


End file.
